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Recognizing a research ecosystem: An update on the US Naval Observatory Library collections

Black, Morgan

Publisher
Zenodo
DOI
10.5281/zenodo.17847289
Repository
zenodo.org
Language
en

Abstract

The US Naval Observatory has been in continuous operation since c.1830, and in its current location since 1893. As a result, the Observatory still has many of the original instruments that made historic discoveries, the original notebooks that recorded the discoveries, the original publications that publicized the discoveries, and surrogates like photographs, artwork, and oral histories that personalize the Observatory's historic achievements. How can a small staff gain control over a sprawling archives? Does the work of the library end when the material types veer from paper? Over the past 5 years, the USNO Library has taken on the enormous task of inventorying photographic glass plates, historic scientific instruments, and institutional archival material that was previously out of scope for the library, and everyone else. This presentation will give an update on the status of the Library's collections, with an overview of workflows and processes that helped our small staff make these important research collections more broadly accessible.

Full text

Recognizing a Research Ecosystem: An update on the United States Naval Observatory Library collections Morgan Black About USNO ●Established in 1830 as the Depot of Charts and Instruments ●An establishment within the US Navy to rate navigational instruments ●Mission today is the same for three scientific departments ○Celestial Reference Frame ○Earth Orientation ○Precise Time About the Library ●Led by astronomers, naval personnel, until early 20th century ●Grew quickly after integration with the Nautical Almanac Office in late 19th century ●Serves approx. 100 civilian employees, mostly astronomers, mathematicians, physicists ●About 80,000 items in the collection ○Primarily scientific periodical and exchange publications ●Required by U.S. Code to have collections open to the public Librarians 1845 -1887 ●Professor of Mathematics J.S. Hubbard (1845-1863) ●Professor of Mathematics William Harkness (1863-1865) ●Professor of Mathematics J.E. Nourse (18651879) ●Professor of Mathematics E. S. Holden (18791881) ●Lt. E. F. Qualtrough (1881-1882) ●Lt. G. E. Yardley (1882-1883) ●Lt. J.C WIlson (1883-1885) ●Lt. L. L. Reame (1885-1887) Librarians 1887 -today ●W. D. Horigan (1887-1889) ●Assistant Astronomer H.M. Paul (1889-1892) ●W. D. Horigan (1887-1889) ●Prof. Asaph Hall Jr, (1927-1929) ●Grace O. Savage (1929-1951) ●Marjorie S. Clopine (1952-1962) ●Lettie (Bevis) Multhauf (1962-1968) ●Veronica Williams (1968-1969) ●Anne G. Grunstein (1969-1973) ●Brenda G. Corbin (1973-2005) ●Sally Bosken (~2005-~2015) ●Linda Towne (~2015-~2019) ●Morgan Black (2019-) USNO Library ●Status in 2019 ○No electronic subscriptions ○No interlibrary loan ○No binding program ○Struggling HVAC, ceiling damage from leaks ○Catalog disappearing ●Status today ○Member of the NSWC Research Commons (Open Athens) ○350+ interlibrary loan requests/year ○Binding Program + added compact shelving ○Institutional Overleaf account ○Catalog fully migrated ○New HVACS, ceiling repaired USNO Archives ●Status in 2019 ○Majority of material at the United States National Archives and Library of Congress ○Piles and boxes of material in USNO Storage dating to the 19th c. ○Not historically under purview of the library ●Status today ○450 boxes of material sent to the National Archives ○15 new collections processed with finding aids ○USNO Institutional Collection created and inventoried (2000+ items at item level) USNO Museum ●Status in 2019 ○Not under purview of the Library ○Approx. 450 items inventoried by astronomer/volunteer led History Committee ○All located in USNO DC basement areas ●Status today ○Approx. 1200 items discovered, inventoried, described, photographed ○Cataloged in OCLC ○Moved to new museum space